BAYBAY CITY, Leyte - The Agricultural Training Institute – Regional Training Center 8 in partnership with the Department of Agriculture – Regional Field Office 8 and various Local Government Units in the provinces of Biliran and Samar convened online for a coordination meeting in preparation for the School-on the-Air on Smart Rice Agriculture to be launched on June 2022.
The SOA-SRA aims to facilitate the massive and sustained education of small holder farmers and smart rice agriculture through radio. One of the other goals of the program is to link smallholder farmers with knowledge, technology and other providers of the rice industry and to heighten awareness and mobilize strong support involvement of the rural populace in agriculture programs.
On May 2, 2022, ATI in Eastern Visayas, with its SOA Coordinator, spearheaded the coordination meeting together with the representatives of the different municipalities from Biliran and Samar provinces who committed to be facilitators in the said program. The activity was held online through Google Meet with a total of 35 participants.
During the meeting, the members of the Regional Technical Working Group were introduced. The roles of the different agencies involved as well as the facilitators in the municipalities were also presented. Based on the number of rice farmers in the different provinces, it was agreed that 700 enrollees shall be targeted for the province of Biliran and 1,328 from Samar Island.
Moreover, it was also agreed that enrollment forms and other documentary templates shall be sent to the facilitators so that they can start enrolling participants in their areas of responsibility in preparation for the launching of the SOA-SRA program by
